haul

I have a little bit of an obsession when it comes to Asian beauty products. It’s never going to end well for my wallet when the packaging is pink, fluffy and all-round cute AF but when the products inside back it up well then that’s ok with me 🙂 This seems to be the case with a lot of the Asian products I have tried over the years as I have seldom come away with a purchase I am disappointed in. I get to travel to different parts of Asia throughout the year for various dance competitions and in the last month or so I’ve visited Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. Booooyyyyy did I have some fun and boy did I snag some goodies! Most of which have become major parts of my daily makeup routine so I thought it only right to share them on ze blog today 🙂

A look at my typical daily makeup 🙂

A few things to be mentioned!

Earlier on in the year I posted a beauty haul from my trip to Hong Kong sharing some goodies I had gotten, some of which were from the world’s cutest beauty store called Etude House. It’s a South Korean brand hosting some very pretty beauty treats and is actually pretty well priced too! So, of course, I had to hit that bad boy up again in my recent trip to Honkers because we don’t have it here in Oz and YOLO. I do tend to get a little excited while I’m in there and this time was no exception. Here are some of the things I got:

Any Cushion All Day Perfect (Cushion Foundation):

The boxed.

The unboxed.

Before I get started.. be warned that the names of these products, whilst hilarious, don’t do a lot in terms of letting you know what I’m actually talking about so I decided to put my own ‘translation’ in brackets. You’re welcome girl 😉 I had tried this foundation a few years ago on my first trip to HK when they gave me a few little samples at the shop. It wasn’t in the cushion form obviously but I still fell in love with the product and so this time I wanted to get me the real deal. It is such a great foundation you guys.. I purchased the colour “Cream Petal” which matches my pale skin really well but also seems to hold up when my skin is a bit tanned too. It contains 50+ SPF and is said to give “long-lasting perfect, elastic makeup”. I can vouch for the long-lasting! It’s pretty full coverage but somehow it does still manage to look natural and dewy? Almost like I naturally have the world’s most perfect skin without even trying haha! It comes with a little flat puff that you literally dab into the foundation cushion and then dab on your face. Its like makeup bingo! Except quicker, it literally takes me about 2 minutes to do my face. I can even sometimes get away with wearing no concealer when I wear this foundation because it works a treat when it comes to covering blemishes and dark circles. The only downside I would say is that the foundation itself doesn’t last very long (the package is (0.49oz). I have a pretty small face so I don’t think I’m using tonnes of the stuff but it does disappear quickly, mine is on its last legs already after roughly 5 weeks and I haven’t even been using it every day. Shame 🙁

Fix + Fix Fixing Powder (Translucent Powder):

The boxed.

The unboxed.

Well, I think this guy’s job is to fix.. what do ya reckon!? Fix Fix Fixing Fixative Fix Powder. Haha jokes aside, this stuff fixes good. Real good. Having super pale skin I have been trying to find a translucent powder that doesn’t alter the colour of my concealer/ foundation and so far.. no dice. I have my Laura Mercier powder which I love to use for competitions but using it as a daily powder when I have no tan on = my under eyes being a totes different colour to my face. #notgoals. But no more needing to weep because fix + fix Fixing Powder to the rescue! It leaves no residue on top of my skin, doesn’t alter the colour of the concealer underneath it and it is so finely milled that it doesn’t leave your wrinkles all cakey and dry looking. My under eyes are pretty prone to dryness so I have to go really sparingly with powder under there (no baking for me!) and this stuff just seems to work an absolute treat. It also comes with a poof which I don’t mind using if I need to powder larger parts of my face but for under my eyes I just sweep some across with a small brush 🙂

Lovely Cookie Blusher (Blush):

Strawberry Shortcake pink <3

Strawberry Shortcake in action!

If there’s one makeup product that I have only ever purchased in Asia then its got to be blush. One of my all time favourites is a Japanese brand called Canmake because they have the softest, most beautiful, cotton candy colours that just look so good on pale skin and better yet they are OH SO AFFORDABLE! I have found a shop in Oz that sells that blush but I was touching pan by the time I’d gotten to Asia so I was planning on getting a freshie. That was until I came across the Lovely Cookie Blush. the packaging was bloody ADORABLE for starters and they had that perfect shade of pink I was looking for, “Strawberry Shortcake”. YUM. It is yummy on my skin too, it goes on smooth leaving a matte-finish pink shade that has you looking rosy and soft. Plus it was only around $10 AUD so you can’t go wrong! Look at all Etude House has to offer here.

Next up are a few little things I picked up in Taiwan. Taiwan actually caught me off guard because I wasn’t really expecting to do any shopping there but one morning when Steve and I had nothing to do we decided to go for a little venture to the closest shopping district. We got there around 10am and nothing was open. Not even coffee shops… It was already around 35 degrees celsius and after our half an hour walk we were hanging for some air conditioning. Queue random looking dollar store! Well it turned out that this was probably the best dollar store I’d ever been to! They had EVERYTHING in there. Literally anything you could think of was inside this 4 storey shop ranging from make-up to garden tools to food to electronics. It was crazy town up in there and it was all uber cheap. I’m talking decent quality socks for 75cAUD cheap. I got a little amped and bought a few things. I got some mascara for $7AUD, 3 pairs of socks, a packet of 20 pairs of good eyelashes for $12AUD, a shower cap for $3AUD and a few other goodies. But the one thing I wanted to mention today has been something that I have seen kicking about in Sephora and other shops that I have looked at and thought to myself who on earth would buy those? Why would you need something so ridiculous? Well.. it turns out I am now a hypocrite and I love them. Much like my selfie stick!

Mini Beauty Blenders:

So mini, so cute!

If you haven’t seen these before they are those little tear drops that are a quarter of the size of the actual beauty blender. They sell at Sephora for $30AUD for 2 but I picked them up at this little dollar joint for $4AUD for 4!! A buck each. Honestly, I think the whole reason as to why I bought them was because I was so surprised at how cheap they were and I thought what the heck I’ll give them a go! Turns out they are actually pretty darn helpful! They get into all the little places that my normal beauty blender struggles to reach properly and they are just that little bit firmer so they really pat the product into the skin well. I use it everyday for my concealer under my eyes, for blending around my nose and eyebrows and for smoothing products on my eyelids. I don’t think I would pay $15 for 1 though now that I know that somewhere is actually selling them for a dollar but I have seen online that Real Techniques sell 4 for about $9AUD which for me seems more reasonable. Just google mini beauty blender if you are keen at shopping around for some or if all else fails head on over to Sephora 😉

Follow me over on Snappy @ Rachellemp 😉

Asian beauty products may not be for everyone but believe me if you are fair-skinned, they ARE for you! They do also tailor to warmer skin tones aswell so don’t just think that it’s all for us pale folk! So give it a go, you’ll never know til you try 😉 Until next time ladies…

Howdy from Hong Kong! Gosh I love Honkers. It’s such a bustling, crazy little place where the streets are always filled with people, everything is open til later than late and there are TOO MANY beauty shops. Imagine 5 different versions of Priceline (Australia) or Boots (UK) and then put a dozen of them within a 5 km radius of one another and that’s Hong Kong. Then rather than imagining those shops to be all set out in a spacious and clear manner, change that to everything being piled ontop of one another and filled with brands and products you’ve never heard of. It’s a girls paradise! Whenever I come to HK I always make sure to stock up on all the different beauty buys that I know I cant get elsewhere. It’s also a place where I find myself trying so many different and new things and being a fair-skinned lass, the products seem to be made for me! So, because I only really had yesterday free in the whole week that I’m here I tried to cram the bulk of my beauty hunting into one day and I still managed to come away with some bargains! Let’s have a little looksie shall we?

Goodies!

First up, face masks. I haven’t really gone into too much detail on my blog as to how obsessed I am with sheet masks. But I guess cat’s out of the bag now!! After travelling to different parts of Asia for the past 7 years, I quickly noticed how beautiful and young Asian skin looks. This can’t all be because of great genes can it!? One thing I have learnt is that Asian women put a lot of time, effort and care into maintaining the youthfulness of their skin and a big part of their regime is face masks. This is pretty obvious from the minute you step into any beauty store as the places are usually decked out with massive skin care sections featuring hundreds of different sheet masks all claiming to do various things. Snail goo masks, bird’s nest masks, bee pollen masks, horse oil masks.. there are definitely some strange ones but there are also a fair few that are much less daunting. I’ve tried so many different ones and I am honestly yet to find one that I feel hasn’t left my skin feeling better than before I put it on. I guess you just have to be clear in what you feel your skin needs and then try to either ask one of the staff to help you or try to find parts on the box that are actually written in english and then find something that offers what you need. I always tend to sway toward the same things which include brightening, tightening, moisturising and collagen masks. This time the shop I was in was offering a bit of a deal on some boxes and so I got the 24K Gold Hydra Ampoule Mask by Fresh Nation. There seems to be a lot of hype surrounding ‘gold’ masks and this one contains an extra separate section containing ‘ampoule’ which is basically a concentrated, stronger version of the product that you apply first before the sheet mask. This mask is good for moisturising and hydrating the skin whilst improving elasticity and vitality. Sounds good to me, cant wait to try it!

FACE MASKS!

24K Gold Hydra Ampoule Mask

There is the cutest shop ever located right in Causeway Bay called Etude House which is Korean based and stocks oh so many cutesy beauty bits. I don’t often buy many things from here because the first time I found it, I went totally overboard due to the cute-ness and was left slightly underwhelmed on the quality of the tester samples they gave me, but it is always fun to see what new things they have on offer. They also have billions of face masks so I picked up a collagen one (always a winner!) and a Cherry Jelly lips patch because YOLO. The lips patch contains collagen, sodium hyaluronate and cherry extract which will help the lips feel moisturised, revitalised and plump which sounded great for my post flying, dehydrated non-plump lips. I also got a little charcoal chin patch because I’ve had a bit of a chin breakout 🙁

Goodies from Etude House

Touristing!

Over at Sasa (the joint that seems to be the major player in beauty here) I found a replica of the Silisponge. If you haven’t heard of the Silisponge don’t be too alarmed as it’s a relatively new product which was produced in Korea to rival the good old beauty blender. Its made out of silicone and is meant to be a lot more hygienic than a normal sponge and it doesn’t soak up all of your precious product. I first saw it online and didn’t even bother trying to order one because it was completely sold out. It hasn’t taken long for other companies to steal the idea and make their own! I gave it a go this morning and whilst I did feel like I was slapping my face with a silicone chicken fillet (for your bra), it did give a nice finish and I barely used any product. Plus the sponge washed off clean as a whistle afterwards so no more nasty germs! What I found most hilarious about this buy though was compared to the usual AUD$30 Sephora like to charge for the Beauty Blender (I don’t get it?) I paid AUD$5 for this little guy. I’m pretty sure I won’t have to be replacing it every 3 months either!!

Sasa is everywhere!

Silicone sponge

I got a few random bits from a shop called Mannings Plus which reminded me of a pharmacy or chemist in Australia but still contained sooooo many exciting things! I bought a charcoal toothbrush because mine had unfortunately been ruined by my red shampoo some 36,000 feet up in the air. There is always something that has to leak/explode isn’t there! Also, Id never seen charcoal toothbrushes before? Apparently the charcoal is meant to remove stains from teeth, be naturally antibacterial and balance the pH level of the mouth which reduces cavity forming bacteria. I’d heard of charcoal toothpaste but these bad boys are next level! I also got some Revlon airbrush effect foundation, pretty boring I know as it’s not in cushion form and isn’t some new age asian bb cream but this stuff is great for competitions and I have completely run out of comp makeup 🙂 Also it was AUD$7 cheaper than what I pay in Australia.. BARGAIN!

Speaking of bargains, there’s one last thing Id like to mention. About a month ago I did a little online shopping and purchased some Crest 3D Whitening Strips from America. This product isn’t sold in Australia but I had heard from a couple of friends who had been to America and bought it say that the strips are AMAZING and their teeth spoke the truth! All up it cost me AUD$90 for the Professional Effects pack (not the bargain I’m speaking about btw) and it took roughly 2 weeks for the delivery. It contains 20 treatments and I’ve been sharing it with my boyfriend and we have had some pretty positive results! Anyway, I found the same product in Mannings for the price of AUD $30. 1/3 of the price. I know. CRAZY. So I guess I know where I’ll be purchasing this stuff from in the future huh! But seriously I would still buy these things even if I had to pay the $90 because my teeth have literally lightened a few shades already. I have taken progress pics but I feel like they would seriously ruin the prettiness of my blog, so use your imagination guys 😉

Bits and bobs!

Up on the 23rd floor

Well that’s it! Has anyone else been to Asia and are there any items/products that you would recommend getting? I know the mascara here is off the chain and they have amazing falsies too 🙂 Let me know in the comments below.

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Rachelle is a 27 year old Australian Professional Ballroom Champion living in Sydney, NSW. Travelling the world she is constantly inspired by whatever surrounds her and that is reflected in Pink Suede. Have a look around and enjoy!